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Sharewatch: Scottish & Southern Energy

The Perth-based utility is making a song and dance about its push into renewables, but it still believes dirtier, traditional ways of generating electricity have a place.

The company snapped up the Uskmouth coal-fired power station on Thursday. It paid Welsh Power Group £27m for the facility, located in Newport, south Wales.

The purchase gives SSE scope to develop a second power station, possibly gas-powered, on an adjacent site.

Uskmouth's former owners spent an estimated £120m refurbishing the power station in the late 1990s, installing flue-gas desulphurisation equipment. The project, completed in 2001, dramatically reduced its carbon emissions, making it one of the UK's cleanest coal plants.

In a recent interim management statement, SSE said it expects its first half profits to be significantly ahead of the same time last year and to moderately grow pre-tax profits in the full year.